Following the Solidarity Declaration on 22 June 2022 by 18 Member States, the European Commission and the EU Agencies established the Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism (VSM) to provide a concrete response to the migration-related difficulties faced by Member States bordering the Mediterranean. 

The Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism foresees the relocation of asylum seekers to pledging Member States for one year, primarily from Member States confronted with disembarkations (following search and rescue operations). Currently, 13 Member States have made pledges to accept the relocation of more than 8,000 asylum seekers from Cyprus, Greece Italy, Malta and Spain. 

The mechanism provides a degree of flexibility allowing pledging Member States to set preferences regarding their contribution in terms of numbers, profiles of the relocated asylum seekers, and the recipient of solidarity . Furthermore, the Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism allows committing Member States to contribute financially or in other ways if they are unable to fulfil their relocation pledges.

The EUAA’s support is foreseen in several stages of the process, including the identification of relocation candidates, information provision and relocation interviews, matching eligible candidates with the most appropriate Member State, as well as sharing lists of proposed candidates with the Member States pledging to receive the applicants.
 
The operationalisation of the relocation mechanism has so far been initiated in Italy, Cyprus, and Malta. The EUAA is helping to implement harmonised procedures and tools at the various stages foreseen of the workflow. Specifically, in Italy, candidates have already been processed and have been pre-accepted by France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Lithuania; with 38 persons already transferred to France at the end of August 2022. In Cyprus, EUAA personnel are proceeding with the initial steps of the identification, registration, and information provision, aiming at identifying candidates to be relocated to France, Germany, and Romania in the upcoming weeks.  Similar steps have been undertaken in Malta where the team is identifying candidates to be relocated to Romania. 

By mid-September 2022, 932 candidates from Italy and Cyprus had been registered in the voluntary relocation program, whereas 358 had already been identified to be relocated to the aforementioned pledging Member States. 

Prior to the transfers to the pledging Member States the candidates go through all necessary medical examinations, while transfers are performed with the support of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Finally, a Data Sharing Platform was launched by the EUAA to facilitate the exchange of information, lists of candidates and personal data between the participating Member States and involved stakeholders in a protected environment in full compliance with the GDPR and the data processing limitations set by the EUAA Regulation.